


As it is in Heaven

by cassbuttandsquirrel



Series: Suptober20 [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel is incredibly old and we shouldn't forget it, Gardens & Gardening, Gen, Human Castiel (Supernatural), Human Castiel in the Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Post-Canon, Suptober 2020 (Supernatural), all romantic ships are basically background, biblical verses out of context
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26894293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassbuttandsquirrel/pseuds/cassbuttandsquirrel
Summary: Cas builds a garden.
Relationships: Castiel & Dean Winchester, Castiel & Sam Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester (background), Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester (background)
Series: Suptober20 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962145
Kudos: 15





	As it is in Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my attempt at suptober20 prompt number 2 "Earth"!!   
> I am not sure what to think about this one-- it came out of Nowhere. *hands it to you on a plate anyway*  
> Hope you enjoy all the same!!
> 
> ps- did my best to keep Castiel gender neutral (first time I've ever tried that, so I would love feedback on that in particular!)

It’s something Castiel has always wanted to do. There’s something intimate and solemn and undeniably foolhardy in it that has always peaked Castiel’s interest. 

Long ago it was nothing but a scoff-like vibration from a knot of grace and a tumble of faces in the vanity of such fleeting joys in such fleeting lives, but as soon as Castiel really started to meditate on it, that was the crux of the matter. And Castiel is enthralled. 

The hopeful planting of seeds in a lovingly turned plot when nothing was guaranteed but the return of interminable weeds became a type of envied strength to Castiel. And now, having spent these final angelic years surrounded by earth in the flat sprawl of Kansas, the importance is understood.

Castiel tells the brothers about it over the 38th breakfast graceless. 

Sam is immediately enthusiastic, face bright as he abandons his coffee to fish his phone out of his pocket and research soil types. Castiel doesn’t have the heart to tell him that it is already known. Dean has yet to respond, but he’s looking at Castiel with an expression that without the divine power of soulsight Castiel is unable to decipher. There’s a bitterness there, somehow beside the pancakes in the stomach that settles familiar in Castiel’s human body. 

Dean keeps looking and Castiel doesn’t shy away, but tries instead to express thoughts of doing something alone, something solitary, something for one’s own self. By the time Dean glances away Castiel thinks that he has understood.

Castiel lets Sam come along on the trip to the hardware store. They pick up seeds for plants both edible and decorative and they share some laughs over the temporary confusion of decorative kale. 

Castiel lets Sam help bury their treasures in the damp soil and Sam adds a bit of humus from the compost heap they have both been cultivating for years and grins.

 _It is good_ , Castiel thinks when he considers the repetitive motion and the impetuous optimism that accompanies it, _it is something good_. 

Later, when Castiel resigns to once again sleep, there is a clutter of odd-shaped bottles on the bedside table with a note in Dean’s messy scrawl.

_Found in storage- thought you’d want to see before I chuck them_

Castiel has always known when Dean is lying and that thankfully was not a skill lost in the closing of Heaven. Some may have been from the Men of Letters, but several bottles were not dusty enough and the seeds too fresh to have been ancient. And Castiel knows ancient. A smile blooms on Castiel’s face as the labels are read and the bottles touched gently.

These are planted somewhere else. Dean takes Castiel on several trips to the farmer’s market that has opened up to the warming weather and will abandon Castiel not-so-subtly for half hour or more because he thinks that is what is wanted. He’s not entirely wrong, and Castiel gives him gummy smiles and good laughs to his terrible jokes because that’s all that can be given back. 

Dean doesn’t ask where the garbage-condemned seeds have gone and Castiel relishes the opportunity not to. Until suddenly the secrecy loses its allure. 

It happens sometime during the second harvest of “Cas and Sam’s Garden” as Jack has taken to calling it, something that bothers both Dean and Castiel (but for much different reasons). But then Castiel takes one look at the younger Winchester’s face and realises that this too has been something good. This working of the soil together, this combination of their hopes and plans and wishes. And this garden is loved by everyone in the Bunker. By Jack who spends hours learning the Latin names of each variety and then uses this knowledge for dinnertime quizzes with Sam. By Dean when he watches Castiel and Sam weed the plot side by side and ducks away when either of them catch him looking. By Eileen when she comes by to sling her arm around Sam’s waist and take his soil-stained hand in her small ones. By Jody and Donna when they get to take home a portion of the harvest and even by Claire when she calls Castiel a few days later to complain about how they’ll be eating “his stupid zuchinnis” for months. 

So when Castiel is watering The Garden one early morning, the decision to show it to the rest of the family comes easily. 

It’s small, and several of the seeds Dean left for him have not survived but Castiel is proud of The Garden. 

When Dean and Sam and Jack are standing in front of it, Castiel feels exposed. Then Jack points out the small ocimum basilicum that was struggling next to the rosebush and his face is blossoming the boast of his knowledge and there is love all around them. 

Castiel takes a place beside Dean who shuffles close enough to knock their shoulders together and stays there. Castiel looks at The Garden, a long awaited replica of the long-loved garden of an autistic man on an everlasting Tuesday afternoon.

“On earth as it is in heaven.” 

The words are quiet, and meant for nobody else. Castiel is surprised to taste that they are not bitter. Maybe it’s the sun on their shoulders, or the smiles shared between them or the way Dean interlocks their fingers together in response. 

Maybe, it is very good. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Kudos and Comments are ALways appreciated =D
> 
> Find me on [ Twitter! ](https://twitter.com/librarian_gamer?s=07)


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